NEW INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS AND EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTRE FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES

The 2007 State Budget will provide $70.4 million for a world-class fire, ambulance, SES and disaster management emergency operations centre in Brisbane which will deliver the best possible responses to Queenslanders in need and make a major contribution to community safety throughout the state.

Emergency Services Minister Pat Purcell said the integrated communications and emergency operations centre planned for the Kedron Park campus of the Department of Emergency Services (DES) in Brisbane would improve responses to Triple-Zero fire and ambulance emergency calls in the fastest-growing areas of the state’s south-east corner and enable better coordination of the state resources to deal with large scale emergencies and disasters such as Cyclone Larry.

Mr Purcell said the new state-of-the-art communications and emergency disaster coordination centre would replace the existing fire and ambulance triple zero communications facilities in Brisbane and South East Region.

“Demands on emergency services have grown and changed over recent years. Rapid population growth in the south-east corner, especially in the corridor from Ipswich to Moreton Bay is resulting in growing demand for services,” he said.

“Many of these fast-growing areas are on or close to the boundaries of the DES’s Brisbane region and its South Eastern region stretching from the Gold Coast, the hinterland, through Beaudesert and Boonah, to Ipswich and Toogoolawah.

“We need to remove any ‘grey areas’ that exist in the coverage responsibilities of the existing two regional communications centres, and that can best be addressed by combining the existing centres into one world-class facility capable of meeting existing and future requirements.”

Mr Purcell said the new emergency operations facility — the first of its kind in Australia — was a visionary project that would incorporate the latest communication technologies, enabling DES to meet current and future needs.

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“This project heralds a new era in telecommunications support. State-of-the-art technology will be used to enable emergency communication experts to address a new wave of challenges which have been experienced in recent times and anticipated in future years,” he said.

In addition to the combined communications centre for the QAS and QFRS, the centre will accommodate the functions currently provided by the State Disaster Coordination Centre and the State Operations Coordination Centres as well as aero-medical tasking throughout Queensland. The centre will also include conference and meeting rooms and staff amenities, and will be based on the most contemporary, sustainable environmental design.

Mr Purcell said construction was planned to commence in April 2008 with completion due in December 2009 and the transition of services by early 2010.

“The new centre will provide scaleable systems to enable emergency response to major incidents to support any size disaster or major event impacting Queensland,” he said.

“The centre will bring together the skills and knowledge of highly experienced emergency communication and response professionals with access to a range of on-site resources and logistics to allow the best possible approach to emergency situations.”

Mr Purcell said the establishment of the facility would be part of a number of changes to the accommodation strategy for the DES’s Kedron Park campus prompted by construction of the Airport Link tunnel.

He said there would be no job losses from the combination of the existing communication centres.

Media contact: Tim Shipstone 07 3247 8194, 0409 620 571.

Brendan Connell 07 3247 8992, 0437 837 976